Legal Pets in Boise

Legal Pets in BoiseIf you are like any human who is not allergic to animal fur, you probably excited to have the right kind of pet to liven up your house and bring you daily joy. If you have no interest in having a pet and yet are inexplicably unaffected by allergies related to them, I am not sure you are human at all. Regardless, people like pets, and there are a ton of different animals that interest and excite the mind. Cats and dogs are the classic pet, and you really cannot do any better if you are looking for a loving animal to spend a life with, but that is only scratching the tip of the iceberg (Please, pardon the mixed metaphors). There are all kinds of different species of bird, mammal or reptile that make for excellent pets. Unfortunately, there are certain species and kinds of animal that are just not right. Some are even illegal, and the standards of what fits into the law and reasonability changes from area to area. A place like Idaho, and even more specifically the Treasure Valley and Boise, have their own specifications of what kind of animals you can own as pets. Today, we are going to get into some of the minutia and broader aspects of what is legal for you to own in the Treasure Valley, and why this is the case.

First, let us get some obvious examples out of the way. While it is perfectly legal and acceptable to own most species of domesticated cat or dog, their larger and wilder cousins are out of the question. You cannot own a mountain lion or a panther. Unless you have some kind of special circumstance where you care for and rehabilitate these creatures and the government says it is specifically okay for you to do so, do not try and own these animals. First of all, it is crazy and dangerous. Second of all, it is not good for the animal itself.

Many animals are just not meant to live in captivity. Take, for example, the great white shark. Sure, I hear you. Who is going to try and keep and own a great white shark? Only a movie villain would be so insane. Stay with me, though, as this kind of shark is a good example. Great white sharks tend to die very quickly in captivity. Even aquariums and research groups find it nearly impossible to keep and contain these creatures. They need a lot of space to roam, and when their enclosure is too small (And almost any size of enclosure is too small), they tend to run into the walls and edges and hurt themselves over and over again. Among other reasons, this is why you will almost never see a shark like this in a zoo or aquarium. They just are not meant to live in captivity. This applies to a lot of different kinds of animals, though we should point out that this includes most large marine animals. The ocean is a very big place, and the things that live in it are used to having the run of the place. They are not going to do well in a situation where they go from having an entire ocean to explore to a fifty cubic meter tank. Again, owning an animal like this is probably going to be pretty much impossible anyway, but if you are ambitious, you should know it is a bad idea, and other more reasonably sized and found animals also fit this bill.

Here are a few other categories of animal you cannot keep according to Boise laws and common sense. Generally, unless you are specifically a farmer working on a farm, it is not okay for you to have farm animals, especially in large quantities. This is mostly because these animals are going to be a disturbance to your neighborhood or neighbors. The city might not come down on you about this, but you can bet your local officials and homeowners association will cause trouble for you. No one wants to live next to the backyard of someone raising chickens or cattle. Even if not government officials notice a problem, you can bet you will get complaints from anyone within a city block or so.

Furthermore, any kind of invasive species is a bad idea and probably illegal. If the animal you are keeping is not native to Idaho or North America and is known for spreading quickly and destroying the habitats of other species, people are not going to let you have it. You will probably have trouble just getting into the country or city. In fact, if you are trying to do so, you have probably been told many times to stop and are going ahead anyway, so I would encourage you to stop that. Harming the environment is a very real possibility with these kinds of things, and you do not want to be party to the extinction of a nearby endangered species (Perhaps you live close to a pond that is the last home of a certain kind of fish) or destruction of an ecosystem.

To own a pet that you love and care for is one of life’s great joys. Many are much happier interacting with animals than humans and with good reason. Animals do not care about who you are as a person unless you are hurting them. As long as they are capable of love (Looking at you, cats), you can always count on unconditional love from your pets. However, not everything is pet material, and not just because the law says so. Certain animals will not be happy as your pets, and might even die being trapped by your ownership. Also, certain animals are a nuisance and a danger to the area around you. You may consider not becoming that person who owns a rooster and ten chickens along with a highly aggressive species of ant from an obscure part of Africa. They could potentially cause all kinds of damage and make people very angry.

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